


Auld Acquaintance (Never Brought To Mind)

by Novaviis



Series: Watercolour [4]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Rewrite, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, New Year's Eve, New Year's Fluff, New Year's Kiss, Pining, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 09:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16992015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Novaviis/pseuds/Novaviis
Summary: After freeing the Justice League from the control of The Light, the Team engages in an age old human custom... or at least most of them do. Amends are made, new relationships begun, mutual pinning continued on with little to no progress. Can't win everything.[Canon Rewrite of Young Justice S01 E26]





	Auld Acquaintance (Never Brought To Mind)

**Author's Note:**

> God, I need to give myself more permission to write short little pieces like these. I obsess too much over word limit and having enough to write, and end up forgetting that like – there’s no rules. Anywho, this is one I’ve wanted to put out for a while and now I’m just! Gonna do it!
> 
> Anyway, I should pooorbibly wait to post this on New Years but… I don’t wanna.

 

 

 

The crimson vortex faded just as Wally skidded to a stop. Kaldur, Artemis, and Zatanna followed, their rushed footsteps coming to a slow, stuttering hault. Left standing in the Atrium of the Watch Tower, the young heroes found themselves overwhelmed by the silence in the aftermath. The quiet whir of the Tower’s systems droned on as muddled white noise – but nothing else. One step echoed up to the high ceilings and off the glass and meteorite walls. In that one flash of light, it was over. Vandal Savage and Klarion vanished without a trace, and now, all that was left to do was clean up their catastrophic mess.

Kaldur, forcing his back upright and taught, was the first to move. He walked forward, kneeling down next to Red Tornado’s dismembered torso. It should have been almost comical – the android laying there with his limbs ripped off and tossed across the floor, lifting his head just an inch to look at them. “Congratulations, Team. You’ve won the day,” he addressed them. Casual as making note of the weather. It should have been funny. No one was laughing quite yet. Maybe later, but not quite yet.

Conner, Rocket, Robin, and M’gann joined them only moments after. There wasn’t really a chance to catch their breaths, to be honest. They were bruised, and exhausted, and coming off the adrenaline high, and suddenly the holographic interface was projecting a blue image into the air above their heads with a staccato voice.

_[ JANUARY 1, 00:00 EST ]_

“Happy New Year, Justice League.”

A midi-file version of Auld Lang Syne began playing over the speakers with an eerie echo. The satellite was much too large and much too empty at this hour, even with the dozen Leaguers, unconscious and scattered across the base. The effect was a little haunting and, again, almost comical.

This time, finally Zatanna broke the tension hanging over their heads. A light laugh bubbled from her throat, gloved hand coming up to cover her mouth. She was still out of breath, half leaning over with her other hand braced on her knee.

Artemis watched her with a raised brow, her own smile a little breathless for an entirely different reason. “And what do you think’s so funny?”

Zatanna waved her off, shaking her head before staring up at the blonde with a mirrored expression. “Preemptive,” she clarified, smile only growing when Artemis’s confusion did the same. “Well, are you gonna kiss me or what?”

Artemis’ eyes blew wide beneath her mask – and true to her word, Zatanna’s laughter was finally justified. It took a minute of sputtering through the scarlet blush crawling up her cheeks for Artemis to just laugh along with her. Slipping her arm around Zatanna’s waist, Artemis pulled her in, but held off kissing her just yet – a small measure of revenge. “What makes you so sure I want to do that?”

Zatanna could only roll her eyes. “Oh please, you should have done this a long time ago. Here I was, thinking that the great Artemis wasn’t all talk. Guess I-“

Artemis silenced her in the only appropriate way. All too pleased with herself, Zatanna threw her arms around Artemis’ neck, drawing up on her tip-toes to close the height difference.

Through the interaction, M’gann and Conner turned toward each other (without the preamble) to kiss the New Year in. Raquel then turned to kiss Kaldur’s cheek, commenting about how much she was starting to like this team, as she did. This left Wally to watch Artemis and Zatanna, glancing around at the rest of the team in complete dismay.

“Whoa- okay,” Wally stammered. “Did _no one_ else-“

“See that coming?” Robin cut him off with an elbow jam to the side. “Uh huh, pretty sure you’re the only one who didn’t.”

“Human customs still elude me,” Red Tornado commented in monotone.

The music was still playing through the Watch Tower. The other team members were other preoccupied. Both Dick and Wally realized a moment too late that they were the only ones just – standing there. The only pair “left out” so to say. At the same moment, they caught each other’s’ glance, and at the same moment, they both ripped their eyes away.

“Uh-“ Wally stuttered, reaching up to rub the back of his neck.

Robin jumped in too quickly, cutting of whatever he might have been trying to say. “Yeah?”

Wally opened his mouth, stopped, closed it, opened it again, and in the end just sighed. “Happy New Year, dude.”

If Robin was at all disappointed, he didn’t show it. There was a hesitation in his eyes, a moment of daring and then backing down. He grinned, a little too forced. “Yeah. Happy New Year.”

 

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

 

The aftermath of the event was a lot – far too much for the team alone to deal with. Slowly, the Leaguers came to, nursing migraines and aches as they recovered from the ordeal. There was a certain degree of humiliation to each adult to woke with a splitting head only to be informed that the side- young heroes had needed to save them from mind control, and been able to take each one of them down in order to reverse it. Humiliation, of course, but it wasn’t without pride.

“The kids are alright,” Oliver had commented with a grin as Raquel had handed him a bottle of water and some Advil. Barry had rolled his eyes and picked himself up to go check on his nephew, but the subdued smile was still there. Their protégées were growing into their own heroes. They’d be the best of them all someday.

Artemis spent twenty minutes with Oliver and Roy, standing somewhat awkwardly to the side while Oliver attempted to comfort the new-found clone. She and Roy weren’t close. Not by a long shot. But she wasn’t heartless, and they’d just gone through hell together to make right the wrong he’d done. So, she was a silent comfort, offering few words, but remaining by in a quiet confirmation that neither she nor Oliver were going to abandon him. Artemis hadn’t really felt like a proper “Arrow” when she’d been taken under Oliver’s wing. After all, she’d already been lethal with a bow, courtesy of Dear Old Dad. She hadn’t thought she’d ever really be included as part of this fucked up little clan. Now, though… whether she liked it or not, she was one of them. It was a sentiment, she realized, was beginning to extend toward more than just her fellow archers.

The thought crossed her mind as Oliver and Roy were called for a briefing by Batman. Zatanna was sitting with Black Canary on the far end of the Atrium, casting heavy glanced toward Dr. Fate from across the space. Her heart tugged in her direction, a thrumming magnetic pull. Before she could join her girlfriend (the word alone sent her head spinning), she was intercepted by a loud ginger jogging toward her.

 “Artemis!” Wally waved his hand casually in the air as he stopped in front of her. His cowl had been pushed back, allowing his amicable expression to shine through uncovered. “Hey.”

Artemis looked him up and down somewhat skeptically before removing her own mask and stuffing it in her pocket. “Hey. What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Wally shrugged. “Just…” he trailed off, “wanted to – I don’t know, call a truce. I’ve been… sort of an ass since you joined.”

Artemis scoffed, but her smile was genuine. “Sort of?”

“A huge antagonistic ass, if we wanna be specific.”

“Well,” Artemis gave in, “I wasn’t exactly the most friendly from the get go either. But you do don’t need to worry. Over the last few weeks… you’ve had my back,” she added with a smirk. “You’re not bad, West.”

Wally’s mouth quirked up into a lopsided smile. “Yeah?”

“A massive fucking dork, but not bad.”

“Not bad yourself, for a huge bitch.”

Artemis rewarded the comment with a switch punch to the arm, laughing with Wally as he tried feebly to defend himself. Without pulling her hand back from the blow, she opened her fingers and turned her palm up. “So, we’re cool?”

Wally took her hand. “Yeah. We’re cool,” he smiled with a squeeze. The speedster jerked his head over his shoulder. “Now, go see your girlfriend before she hexes me for taking up your time or something.”

Artemis leg go, walking backwards away from Wally with a cocky sway to her step and a teasing brow. “What happened, Mr. Magic’s Not Real? Finally changing your tune?”

Wally rolled his eyes. “Hereditary Meta-gene.”

“Geek!” Artemis fired back.

With their bickering finished for the time being, Artemis finally turned and across the room over to Zatanna (as in Zatanna Zatarra, her girlfriend, holy shit). She took a seat on the couch next to her, a little grateful that Black Canary took that as her cue to leave them be. Zatanna, though not so upset anymore, leaned against Artemis’ side with a heavy sigh. Artemis draped her arm around her, a little stiff and awkward with the affection, but damn well giving it a shot. Zatanna’s hair smelled like lemongrass and peach. She could get used to this.

Still, happy and satisfied as she was, Artemis couldn’t help but glance across the Atrium at Wally, who was now standing in the middle of the open floor, staring toward the windows at Robin as he spoke with Batman. There was a moment, and Artemis could have sworn that she’d imagined it, where it almost looked like Wally nearly walked over to him before thinking better of it. Wally shook his head, turning on his head with his head low and heading toward the back halls, no doubt to find his Uncle. It’d been such a subtle movement, a lean in his stance, a name falling silently off his tongue – Artemis recognized the suppressed longing in an instant. Wally and Robin, huh?

Well, no matter how that turned out, she thought to herself as she pulled Zatanna in a little closer, this was certainly shaping up to be an interesting year.

**Author's Note:**

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